First, preliminary comments:
I'm no expert. I have a degree of confidence in the company leadership, so the issues you mention are not of critical concern to me. To the best of my knowledge, the possibility of a reverse split has not been discussed by the company.
I feel more able to address your question about competition. At this point, all I have is a list cribbed from various sources. Here it goes:
According to the May interview with CEO Brandt
http://www.thestreet.com/video/executiveinterviews/10358889.html
among large western hemisphere companies, LTC sees its competition as:
Johnson Controls [JCI – NYSE], especially in its
joint venture with
Saft Advanced Power Systems [a French company with Lithium Ion expertise].
The joint venture is not publicly traded, to the best of my knowledge.
From the point of view of the Independent Expert Panel report
http://www.arb.ca.gov/msprog/zevprog/zevreview/zev_panel_report.pdf
LTC’s competition is:
A123 Systems [not publicly traded to the best of my knowledge]
Altair Nanotechnologies [ALTI – NASDAQ]
Electrovaya [EFLVF – OTC]
Electro Energy, Inc. [EEEI – NASDAQ]
GS Yuasa [unknown status]
Hitachi Vehicle Energy [a joint venture – unknown status]
JCI-SAFT Power Solutions [the joint venture mentioned by Brandt]
Kokam [unknown status]
Matsushita Battery Industrial Co. [“Panasonic” – unknown status]
Litcel [a joint venture of Mitsubishi and TDK – unknown status]
NEC Lamilion Energy [unknown status]
Panasonic EV Energy [jointly owned by Toyota and Matsushita Electric Industrial]
Sanyo Electric Co. [unknown status]
Another valuable source [see especially page 2] is
http://www.spectrum.ieee.org/jan07/4848 [page 1]
http://www.spectrum.ieee.org/jan07/4848/2 [page 2]
The IEEE Spectrum article mentions:
A123 Systems [mentioned before],
(I) a joint venture between A123 Systems and Cobasys [itself a joint venture of Chevron Technology Ventures and Energy Conversion Devices], and
(II) the joint venture of Johnson Controls and Saft Advanced Power Systems.
GM has awarded battery development contracts to both (I) and (II).
Also mentioned are:
Valence Technology [VLNC – NASDAQ],
Altair Nanotechnologies [mentioned before],
a joint venture of Fuji Heavy Industries [Subaru] and Tokyo Electric Power, and
Litcel [mentioned before].
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